t pavilion outside the
town." A flush of crimson covered his face as he spoke, which Billy as
quickly noticed, but misinterpreted.

"Ay, and they praised you, I 'll be bound. They said it was the work of
one whose genius would place him with the great ones of art, and that he
who could do this while scarcely more than a boy, might, in riper years,
be the great name of his century. Did they not tell you so?"

"No; not that, not that," said the other, slowly.

"Then they bade you go on, and strive and labor hard to develop into
life the seeds of that glorious gift that was in you?"

"Nor that," sighed the youth, heavily, while a faint spot of crimson
burned on one cheek, and a feverish lustre lit up his eye.

"They did n't dispraise what you done, did they?" broke in Billy. "They
could not, if they wanted to do it; but sure there's nobody would have
the cruel heart to blight the ripenin' bud of genius,--to throw gloom
over a spirit that has to struggle against its own misgivin's?"

"You wrong them, my dear friend; their words were all kindness and
affection. They gave me hope, and encouragement too. They fancy that I
have in me what will one day grow into fame itself; and even you, Billy,
in your most sanguine hopes, have never dreamed of greater success for
me than they have predicted in the calm of a moonlit saunter."

"May the saints in heaven reward them for it!" said Billy, and in his
clasped hands and uplifted eyes was all the fervor of a prayer. "They
have my best blessin' for their goodness," muttered he to himself.

"And so I am again a sculptor!" said Massy, rising and walking the
room. "Upon this career my whole heart and soul are henceforth to be
concentrated; my fame, my happiness are to be those of the artist. From
this day and this hour let every thought of what--not what I once was,
but what I had hoped to be, be banished from my heart. I am Sebastian
Greppi. Never let another name escape your lips to me. I will not, even
for a second, turn from the path in which my own exertions are to
win the goal. Let the faraway land of my infancy, its traditions, its
associations, be but dreams for evermore. Forwards! forwards!" cried he,
passionately; "not a glance, not a look, towards the past."

Billy stared with admiration at the youth, over whose features a glow
of enthusiasm was now diffused, and in broken, unconnected words spoke
encouragement and good cheer.

"I know well," said the youth, "how this